Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§14.2 The Character of Discipleship
clearly remembers Jesus' teaching as directed to his disciples and as encouraging
them to live as children before God as Father.
The significance of the imagery is clear. 'To be a child is to be little, to
need help, to be receptive to it' . 41 To become a disciple, then, is to become like a
child, that is, to revert to a position of dependence. 42 The point is not that the
would-be disciple should pretend to be a child or act in a childish manner. It is
rather that disciples must recognize that before God they are in fact little children,
not mature, not able to live a wholly independent life or to bear sole responsibility
for themselves by themselves. The trust for which Jesus called
('Convert and trust') is the constant dependence and reliance of little children
on their parent for their very existence and the ongoing significance of their
lives. Here again the parable of the prodigal son, with its repeated reference to
the father, illustrates what Mark 10.15 pars, asserted: that repentance/conversion
is to return to the son's dependence on the father's extraordinary generosity
(Luke 15.11-24). 43
The childlike trust for which Jesus called is most vividly documented in
the famous Q passage, Matt. 6.25-33/Luke 12.22-31. 44
Matt. 6.25-33 Luke 12.22-31
25 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your
life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or
about your body, what you will wear. Is not life
more than food, and the body more than
clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they
neither sow nor reap nor gather
into barns, and vet your heavenly Father feeds
them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 And can any of you by worrying add a
single hour to your span of life?
28 And why do
you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of
the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor
spin. 29 vet I tell you, that even Solomon in all
his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which
is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the
oven, will he not much more clothe you, you of
22 Therefore 1 tell you, do not worry about your
life, what you will eat. or
about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life
is more than food, and the body more than
clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they
neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse
nor barn, and vet God feeds
them. Of how much more value are you than the
birds! 25 And can any of you by worrying add a
single hour to your span of life? 26 If then you
are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do
you worry about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies.
how (they grow): they neither spin nor weave;
vet I tell you. even Solomon in all
his glory was not clothed like one of these. 28
But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which
is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the
oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of
41. J. Behm, metanoeö, TDNT 4.1003.
42. 'The trust, the emunah, of a child is the conditio sine qua non for access to the Kingdom'
(Vermes, Religion 144; and further 196-200).
43. Cf. Jeremias, Proclamation 155-56. Bailey brings out the extraordinary character of
the father's love by setting the parable in its cultural context {Poet and Peasant 161, 165, 181-
82, 186-87, 196-200). In arguing that children were 'nobodies' in the ancient world (Historical
Jesus 269), Crossan once again ignores the positive imagery of childhood in Jewish biblical tradition
(e.g., above, nn. 30-32). On the parable see also chapter 13 n. 147 above.
44. GTh 36 preserves a mere fragment of the teaching, but P. Oxy. 655 retains a fuller
echo.
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